5 Reasons Why Fall 2021 is Perfect for a 40-Day Church Discipleship Challenge

Summer is just about wrapped up. Kids are heading back to school again. Fall is a natural time in the annual calendar for families to form or reform habits and rhythms in their life. After 18 months of leading through a global pandemic that we are still not through, churches looking to grow are being proactive about how they offer the Good News of Jesus both in-person and online. With the fallout of Covid forcing a reshuffling of people’s lives and priorities, I believe this Fall may be the single greatest opportunity in my lifetime to welcome new or returning people into our churches.

Our team at Red Letter Living wants to help!

As we’ve been leading 40-Day Challenges for nearly 4 years now, Fall is one of the most popular times to launch and implement a 40-Day Challenge. And this Fall is no different. Rather than staying seated on the sidelines or simply waiting for this pandemic to end sometime soon, choose to go all-in, in-person and online, with your church by launching a 40-Day Challenge.

Here are 5 reasons why this Fall is the right time:

40-Day Challenges Create Momentum In-Person and Online (In the Room and in the Zoom)

Church has gotten more complicated with many pastors learning the art of creating a great atmosphere to worship God in their buildings and creating some form of a powerful online worship experience. Our 40-Day Challenges are meant to not only make your Sunday services great but also will tie your physically divided churches together during the week with ready-made small group materials.  In addition, each day your church family will be reading the same devotions and attempting to complete the same challenges. Forward-thinking churches will be looking for resources to not only help them have a great experience on a Sunday, but that can live with their people Monday-Saturday as well. Churches regularly see more than 400% growth on their social media platforms during the 40 days of the Challenge.

Nothing brings unity like Jesus!

2020 was ripe with racial tension, deep oppression, and political battles. On top of that, we’ve all had to learn how to cope and live in the midst of a global pandemic.  It’s easy to say that 2020 was the most divisive, polarizing year that many of us have ever had to lead through. And sadly, against all of our wishes, 2021 has simply been an extension of 2020.  The answer for how to cut through division is, and will always be, Jesus.

Culture divides. Christ unites.

The number one word we’ve heard from well over 100 churches that have completed a 40-Day Challenge in Covid times is “unity.” As we study the life of Jesus, people will find themselves immersed into not only a great model and teacher, but a great Savior and Lord.  The more people experience Jesus, the more unified our community, nation, and the world will be. The more unified your church will be.

A Turnkey Resource for the Whole Church

That’s right! At my core, I am a pastor and I understand pastors.  The resources I create are meant to be as turnkey as possible so that pastors can continue to give their all in other matters.  Planning and leading (in-person and online) can be exhausting, yet Fall remains a “high” attendance season where you want full participation.  What if you could have 40 compelling, exciting, and challenging “done-for-you” days of ministry that you could implement?

Included with our 40-Day Challenges are FREE sermon manuscripts and videos, small group materials, kids’ curriculum, graphics package, etc.  In addition, there are kid’s workbooks available to help challenge kids to follow Jesus! We’ve even created training videos for FREE for you to help you learn how to implement a 40-day challenge in your setting at this website.

Grow Your Small Groups by 40% in Just 40 Days!

Through our proven track record and system, along with our materials, the average church of all sizes, sees 40% growth in their small groups. While discussions, debates, and questions will remain about the in-person church, masks, socially distancing, and when/how we can gather, growing churches of all sizes understand that true depth and spiritual growth happens in small groups. When times shift dramatically, it’s important to anchor and go all-in on a few things you know that will matter in the future. Small groups will always matter. Kickstart, restart or give your small groups a boost by offering a 40-Day Challenge at your church.  

Life-Changing Impact Results in Action Well Beyond the 40 Days

When you put the words of Jesus into practice:

  • your church grows (in number and depth)
  • your community flourishes
  • and people experience fulfillment they never thought possible.

Many Christians know that faith lived out by following Jesus is important. Simply put, though, many don’t know practically how to follow Jesus. At our core, this is what we do best: We teach people very simple targets to implement from the life, words, and habits of Jesus. We then give people really practical but challenging ways to accomplish what Jesus asks. We’ve not only heard how transformative our 40-Day Challenges are during the 40 Days, but hear many stories of people who are still practicing and living by the targets that Jesus teaches us through His red letters.

For the first time ever, we have three 40-Day Challenges to offer:

  • Red Letter Challenge: Help your church get in a rhythm of reading and doing the words of Jesus as they learn 5 discipleship targets: Be, Forgive, Serve, Give and Go.

  • Being Challenge: Only one person ever existed in perfect relationship with God. His name is Jesus. Discover the 5 keystone habits that Jesus practiced to help Him connect with God so that we can be more like Him.

  • Forgiving Challenge: The deeper we dive into God’s forgiveness, the freer we become. Learn about how God’s forgiveness is the key to unlocking freedom in our lives. A forgiven person is a forgiving person. *Available 10/10/21 (There are only a select number of churches involved in the launch of Forgiving Challenge. Email if you’d like to be included in this launch).

We are encouraging churches to join the Next Wave of churches, launching on September 12th or shortly thereafter. If you’d like to discover more about how a church challenge can be implemented at a church, check out this link.

Church Pack Discounts Ready!

In addition, for churches that order 50 or more copies, we have church packs already discounted (15-40% off) ready to go at this link.

FREE Book for Pastors!

Pastors, if you’d like a FREE copy of one of our workbooks you can go to this link and we’ll mail you a copy FREE of charge that will show up at your doorstep in about a week.

Following Jesus is the single greatest opportunity of our lifetime. Imagine if your entire church truly followed Jesus!

Our team would be honored to work with you. Please email us at hello@redletterchallenge.com if you have any questions!

2 Responses

  1. Hello there!
    I’m Sharon from Brazil, my family and I lived in the US from 2019 to 2020, and we got the Book Red Letter Challenge, we did it and it was awesome. Know back in Brazil working with youth we would love to receive some material to be able to work with them here. Of course we will have to translate part of it, but also we have some English speakers youth in our Church south Brazil.
    So how can you help us?
    God bless
    Sharon Vontobel

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